Lapizuli - 3:52 pm on Aug 29, 2011 (gmt 0)

@tedster, I don't get the impression this is about quality control, but rather about how it will be able to help Google identify authority.

Isn't the newish rel=author tag recursive, where you need to link to a Google profile for it to be recognized? As in, if the rel=author tag is to have any effect in building your reputation, Google will know your real name? And if there is no rel=author tag, what is Google going to do about that? Especially if they think that no Google+ "real identity" profile signifies evil...

I actually head in the other direction as most folks - I like the idea of keeping track of people online - when we're ready. I think that like it or not, society is moving online in a big way, and we need to develop trust somehow.

But it doesn't need to be this benevolent/malevolent/Orwellian model that Google/government/people seem to hold. There are other ways it could go.

To get really science-fictiony, I could see us each having assorted different legit "identities," depending on the affiliation group, tracked securely only by a unified trusted source (yes, I know, who do you trust, but there ya go), with each one semi-anonymous. Why limit ourselves to one "real" one when we're not limited by bodies and territories? Anyway, that's a scary/wild vision, but we don't know what identity will even look like in the next century or so. The concept of "self" certainly changed in the previous one - it was all about moving the body here and there, giving it product, etc. Now that body is dispersed everywhere in avatars. The Internet's made everything wonky...

Sorry for the segue - but the point is, I don't like Google as the gatekeeper here, because their intention IS rather Orwellian, in my view.